Florida State University criminologist Dan Maier-Katkin provided valuable perspective on the links between juvenile justice (or injustice) and human rights, as well as a radical and inspiring vision of the better futures we might aspire to offer disadvantaged young people. FSU social-work professors Stephen Tripodi and Eyitayo Onifade shared helpful background information on juvenile-justice problems and potential solutions. FSU law professor Sandy D’Alemberte—a human rights crusader, former legislator, and former FSU president—graciously shared his knowledge of north Florida, past and present, including his contagious appreciation of the Shell Oyster Bar.
Floy Turner—a retired special agent of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (and a continuing warrior in the battles against child abduction and human trafficking)—generously shared her knowledge of FDLE and local law-enforcement in Florida. Brittany Auclair, an FDLE crime-scene and crime-lab analyst, contributed both technical knowledge and insightful literary suggestions; and forensic guru Amy George—whose father, Paul Norkus, helped bring to the United States the use of superglue-fuming to reveal latent fingerprints—deserves much credit for whatever is accurate and admirable in the portrayal of forensic analyst Angie St. Claire. Additional thanks go to Jonathan Auclair, another friendly and helpful forensic expert; Vince George, a former FDLE chemist; Andy Randall, who opened the first of many important doors; Tony Falsetti, former director of the Human Identification Laboratory at the University of Florida; anthropologist Stefan Schmitt of Physicians for Human Rights; Joe Walsh, at the biohazard-cleanup firm Associated Services; funeral director Susie Mozolic; medical examiner Lisa Flannagan, MD; former prosecutor Pete Antonacci; former public defender Jeff Duvall; artist Stuart Riordan; forensic anthropologist Rick Snow; and—as always—forensic wizard Art Bohanan, whose faith in divining is matched by his expertise in more traditional forensic-science techniques.
Forensic artists Joanna Hughes, in Knoxville, and Joe Mullins, at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children—both of whom sportingly agreed to appear in the novel under their own names—were remarkably generous and patient in demonstrating their techniques and their talent for restoring faces to the skulls of the unknown dead.
A bow, a nod, and a pair of commemorative white gloves go to Doris Hamburg, Kitty Nicholson, and Lisa Isbell at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), who graciously opened the doors of NARA’s paper-conservation laboratory and offered helpful advice on how to save and read a waterlogged old diary. Conservationist kudos also to Andrew Spindler, a knowledgeable antiquary and generous friend, who paved the way for that NARA visit.
This book was written up and down much of the eastern United States. Many thanks to Holly Idelson and Don Simon, in whose Washington, D.C., basement many early chapters were written; to Beth McPherson and Paul Kando, on whose dining-room table in Maine many middle chapters took shape; and to Cindy and Joe Johnson, on whose screened-in porch at the mouth of the Ochlocknee River many late chapters (in every sense of the word “late”!) were finished.
Our last, lasting, and deepest thanks go to our wondrous wives: Carol Bass, whose life, day in and day out, embodies strength, courage, grace, and humor; and Jane McPherson—Amazing Jane, Beloved Jane—whose many inspiring qualities include unwavering commitment to human rights and deep compassion for the challenges faced by the disregarded, disadvantaged, and disenfranchised.
—Bill Bass, Knoxville, Tennessee
—Jon Jefferson, Tallahassee, Florida
Anatomical Illustrations
About the Author
JEFFERSON BASS is the writing team of Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson. Dr. Bass (right), a world-renowned forensic anthropologist, founded the University of Tennessee’s Anthropology Research Facility—the Body Farm—a quarter century ago. He is the author or coauthor of more than two hundred scientific publications, as well as a critically acclaimed memoir about his career at the Body Farm, Death’s Acre. Dr. Bass is also a dedicated teacher, honored as National Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Jon Jefferson (left) is a veteran journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. His writings have been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and Popular Science, and broadcast on National Public Radio. The coauthor of Death’s Acre, he is also the writer and producer of two highly rated National Geographic documentaries about the Body Farm.
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